United States Patent 1s) Werle et al. un 3,899,144 (45) Aug. 12, 1975 [54] POWDER CONTRAIL GENERATION [75] Inventors: Donald K. Werle, Hillside; Romas Kasparas, Riverside; Sidney Katz, Chicago, all of Il. ‘The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D.C [22] Filed: July 22, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 490,610 [73] Assignee: (52) US. CL. [51] Int. 12, . ; {58] Field of Search ......... 244/136; 40/213; 241/5, 241/29; 222/3, 4; 239/171; 116/28 R, 114 R, 114, 114 N, 124 R, 124 B, 124C 156] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,619,183 3/1927 Bradner etal 244/136 2,045,865 6/1936 Morey. 40/213 2,591,988 4/1952 Willeox. 241/53 X 31531,310 9/1970 Goodspeed et al 2a1/s X RIS.771 2/1924 Savage 40/213 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,022,621 3/1966 United Kingdom. 2aus Primary Examiner—Trygve M. Blix Assistant Examiner—Barry L. Kelmachter Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Richard S. Sciascia; Joseph M. St. Amand (571 ABSTRACT Light scattering pigment powder par treated to minimize interparticle cohesive forces, are dispensed from a jet mill deagglomerator as separate single particles to produce a powder contrail having ‘maximum visibility or radiation scattering ability for a given weight material 12 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure = richr orecrion POWOER HOPPER { (oe oy f eT i ce 32 2 6 a be Sowa opm ba S ei ngrurvawe | 54 MAIN TUBE: DEAGGLOMERATOR OUTLET 36 VENTURI" PLATE 38 DEAGGLOMERATION CHAMBER 4 SOLENOID VALVE3,899,144 PATENTED AUG 1 21875 3ATVA GION310S- 6/ N3GWVHO NOLLWY3NOT99V30 BE BLVId ,IIN.LNIA,» 9¢ LFTLNO YOLVYaWOT99vaG JN. NIV Ol BAA Td a) [ Ben. uly Wwe: Ov TIWHLNOD, <— SE 21 ] YOLOW y30MOd YO.LOW- Y3ddOH Y30MOd- NOILOaMIG LHOIT4 1 Oly3,899,144 1 POWDER CONTRAIL GENERATION BACKGROUND ‘The present invention relates to method and appara- tus for contrail generation and the like. ‘An earlier known method in use for contrail genera- tion involves oil smoke trails produced by injecting liq- uid oil directly into the hot jet exhaust of an aircraft tar- get vehicle, The oil vaporizes and recondenses being the aircraft producing a brilliant white trail. Oil smoke trail production requires a minimum of equipment; and, the material is low in cost and readily available, However, oil smoke requires a heat source to vaporize the liquid oil and not all aircraft target vehicles, notably towed targets, have such a heat source. Also, at alt tudes above about 25,000 feet oil smoke visibility de- grades rapidly. SUMMARY. ‘The present invention is for a powder generator re- quiring no heat source to emit a “contrail” with suffi- cient visibility to aid in visual acquisition of an aircraft target vehicle and the like. The term “contrail” was adopted for convenience in idemtifying the visible pow- der trail of this invention. Aircraft target vehicles are used to simulate aerial threats for missile tests and often fly at altitudes between 5,000 and 20,000 feet at speeds of 300 and 400 knots or more. The present in- vention is also suitable for use in other aircraft vehicles to generate contrails or reflective screens for any de- sired purpose. ‘The powder contail generator is normally carried on an aircraft in a pod containing a ram air tube and pow- der feed hopper. Powder particles, surface treated to minimize interparticle cohesive forces are fed from the hopper to a deagglomerator and then to the ram air tube for dispensing as separate single particles to pro- duce a contrail having maximum visibility for a given ‘weight material Other object, advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following de- tailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing. DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional side-view of a powder contrail generator of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT ‘The powder contail generator in pod 10, shown in FIG. 1, is provided with a powder feed hopper 12 posi- tioned in the center section of the pod and which feeds ‘a powder 13 to a deagglomerator 14 by means of screw conveyors 16 across the bottom of the hopper. The deagglomerator 14 produces two stages of action. In the first stage of deagglomeration, a shaft 18 having projecting radial rods 19 in compartment 20 is rotated bby an air motor 21, or other suitable drive means. The shaft 18 is rotated at about 10,000 rpm, for example. As powder 13 descends through the first stage com- partment 20 of the deagglomeration chamber, the ham- ‘mering action of rotating rods 19 serves to aerate and precondition the powder before the second stage of deagglomeration takes place in the jet mill section 22. In the jet mill 22, a plurality of radial jets 24 (e.g., six 0.050 inch diamter radial jets) direct nitrogen gas (at eg.. 120 psig) inward to provide energy for further 10 2s 30 35 40 4s 50 35 ra 6s 2 deagglomeration of the powder. The No, or other s able gas, is provided from storage tanks 25 and 26, for ‘example, in the pod. The jet mill 22 operates in a similar manner to com- ‘mercial fluid energy mills except that there is no prov sion for recirculation of oversize particles. Tests with the deagglomerator show that at a feed rate of approxi- mately 1% lb/min, treated titanium dioxide powder pig- ment is effectively dispersed as single particles with very few agglomerates evident. The nitrogen gas stored in cylinder tanks 25 and 26 is charged to 1800 psig, for example. Two stages of pressure reduction, for example, by pressure reduction valves 28 and 29, bring the final delivery pressure at the radial jets 24 and to the air motor 21 to approximately 120 psig. A solenoid valve 30 on the 120 psig line is, connected in parallel with the electric motor 32 which operates the powder feeder screws 16 for simultaneous starting and running of the powder feed, the air motor and the jet mill deagglomerator. Air enters ram air tube 34 at its entrance 35 and the exhaust from the jet mill deagglomerator passes di- rectly into the ram air tube. At the deagglomerator ex- aust 36 into ram air tube 34, an upstream deflector baffle 38 produces a venturi effect which minimizes back pressure on the powder feed system. The powder is then jetted from the exhaust end 40 of the ram air tube to produce a contrail. A pressure equalization tube, not shown, can be used to connect the top of the closed hopper 12 to the deagglomeration chamber 14, A butterfly valve could be provided at the powder hop- per outlet 39 to completely isolate and seal off the pow- der supply when not in use. Powder 13 could then be stored in hopper 12 for several weeks, without danger of picking up excessive moisture, and still be ade- quately dispensed. Preparation of the light scatter powder 13, cal importance to production of a powder * having maximum visibility for a given weight of mate- rial. Itis essential that the pigment powder particles be dispensed as separate single particles rather than as ag- _glomerates of two or more particles. The powder treat- ment produces the most easily dispersed powder through the use of surface treatments which minimize interparticle cohesive forces. ‘Titanium dioxide pigment was selected as the pri mary light scattering material because of its highly eff cient light scattering ability and commercially available pigment grades. Titanium dioxide pigment (e.g., Du- Pont R931) with a median particle size of about 0.34 has a high bulk density and is not readily aerosolizable as a submicron cloud without the consumption of a large amount of deagglomeration energy. In order to reduce the energy requirement for deagglomeration, owder is specially treated with a hydrophobic silica which coats and separates the individual TiO, pigment particles. The extremely fine particulate nature (0.0074 primary particle size) of Cobot S—101 ilanox grade, for example, of colloidal silica minimizes the amount needed to coat and separate the TiO, parti- cles, and the hydrophobic surface minimizes the affin- ity of the powder for absorbtion of moisture from the atmosphere. Adsorbed moisture in powders causes liq- uid bridges at interparticle contacts and it then be- ‘comes necessary to overcome the adsorbed-tiquid sur- face tension forces as well as the weaker Van der Waals’ forces before the particles can be separated,3,899,144 3 ‘The Silanox treated titanium dioxide pigment is fur- ther protected from the deleterious effects of adsorbed moisture by incorporation of silica gel. The silica gel preferentially adsorbs water vapor that the powder may be exposed to after drying and before use. The silica gel used is a powder product, such as Syloid 65 from the W. R Grace and Co., Davison Chemical Division, and hhas an average particle size about 4.5. and a large ca- pacity for moisture at low humidities. ‘A typical powder composition used is shown in Table 1. This formulation was blended intimately with a Pat- terson-Kelley Co. twin shell dry LB-model LB—2161 with intensifier. Batches of 1500 g were blended for 15, min, each and packaged in 5-1b cans. The bulk density of the blended powder is 0.22 gicc. Since deagglomera- tion is facilitated by having the powder bone dry, the powder should be predried before sealing the cans. In view of long periods (¢.g., about 4 months) between powder preparation and use it is found preferable to spread the powder in a thin layer in an open container and place in a 400°F over two days before planned us- age. The powder is removed and placed in the hopper about 2 hours before use. Table | CCONTRAIL POWDER FORMULATION ‘by Weight 8s TO, eg, Daft R91), ‘median particle si coud Sika eg. Cabct 6101 Stanox) mary particle alae 0.0074 Stict el (@.2. Sylotd 65) 5 ‘average particle see 5p. 10 Other type powder compositions can also be used with the apparatus described herein. For example, vai ous powder particles which reflect electromagnetic ra- diation can be dispensed as a chaff or the like from the ccontrail generator. ‘Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described, ‘What is claim is: 1. Contrail generation apparatus for producing a powder contrail having maximum radiation scattering ability for a given weight material, comprising: ‘a, an aerodynamic housing; . ajet tube means passing through said housing, said tube means having an inlet at a forward end of said housing and an exhaust at a rearward end thereof, cc. a powder storage means in said housing; _ a deagglomeration means also in said housing: fe. means connecting said powder storage means with ‘said deagglomeration means for feeding radiation scattering powder from said powder storage means to said deagglomeration means; £. the output of said deagglomeration means dispens- ing directly into said jet tube means for exhausting, deagglomerated powder particles into the atmo- 20 30 35 4s so 35 6s 4 sphere to form a contrail; and 1h. means for controlling the flow of said powder from said storage means to said deagglomeration means. 2. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said jet tube ‘means is a ram air jet tube. 3. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein an upstream de- flector baffle is provided at the output of said deag- glomeration means into said jet tube means to produce a venturi effect for minimizing back pressure on said powder feeding means. 4, Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said deagglomera- tor means comprises: a. means for subjecting powder particles from said powder storage means to a hammering action to aerate and precondition the powder; and ’b.a jet mill means to further deagglomerate the pow- der into separate particles. 5. Apparatus as in claim 4 wherein pressurized gas means is provided for operating said deagglomeration means. 6. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said radiation scattering powder particles are titanium dioxide pig- ment having a median particle size of about 0.3 mi- 7. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said radiation scattering powder particles have a coating of extremely fine hydrophobic colloidal silica thereon to minimize interparticle cohesive forces. 8. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the formulation, of said powder consists of 85% by weight of TiO, pig- ‘ment of approximately 0.3 micron media particle size, 10% by weight of colloidal silica of 0.007 micron pri mary particle size, and 5% by weight of silica gel having an average particle size of 4.5 microns. 9. The method of producing a light radiation scatter- ing contrail, comprising: 1. surface treating light scattering powder particles to ‘minimize interparticle cohesive forces; b. deagglomerating said powder particles in two stages prior to dispensing into a jet tube by subject- ing said powder particles to a hammering action in the first stage to aerate and precondition the pow= der, and by passing said powder through a jet mill in the second stage to further deagglomerate the powder; ¢. dispensing the deagglomerated powder from the jet mill directly into a jet tube for exhausting said powder into the atmosphere, thus forming a con- trail. 10. A method as in claim 9 wherein said light scatter- ing powder particles is titanium dioxide pigment. 11. A method as in claim 9 wherein said powder par- ticles are treated with a coating of extremely fine hy- drophobic colloidal silica to minimize interparticle co- hesive forces. 12. A method as in claim 11 wherein said treated powder particles are further protected with a silica gel powder.